Nabari no Ou – 01

Many years ago, a teen had been carrying a younger boy through the woods during a storm and had gotten surrounded by ninjas. He was ready to fight against overwhelming odds, but the younger boy had suddenly activated a power that brought giant roots out of the ground and had created a pillar of light. Several years later, 14-year-old Rokujou Miharu is a boy with a very indifferent attitude living in a seaside town. One of his classmates is a boy named Aizawa Kouichi who wants to be his friend, but Miharu barely pays him any attention. The truth is that both Kouichi and their teacher Kumohira want Miharu to join the nindou (lit. way of the ninja) club. Miharu isn’t interested though, so Kumohira comes to see him at his family okonomiyaki restaurant to inform him that he’s being targeted. Kumohira goes on to explain that he studied nindou under his grandfather and that the ninjas refer to their world as the World of Nabari, but Miharu remains uninterested and even teases Kumohira.

Meanwhile, Kouichi senses that he’s being followed and confronts his pursuer at a shrine. The pursuer turns out to be Yamase, a teacher who is also a ninja, and he wants to know if Kouichi has the hijutsu (secret art). He threatens Kouichi with a knife, but before their discussion can continue, they are interrupted by Miharu who had been drawn towards the shrine after being sent out to buy some katsuobushi for the restaurant. Yamase immediately tosses a throwing star at him, but when winds shield Miharu from danger, Yamase realizes that Miharu has the hijutsu. Kouichi, however, manages to reach Miharu first and teleports them into the nearby forest. Unfortunately, Yamase calls his allies and has the two boys surrounded because he and his friends know that obtaining Miharu means that their chief becomes the ruler of Nabari. Miharu thus gets captured by Yamase, but shortly thereafter, a female voice in his head suggests killing everyone. This voice also promises to protect him and causes characters to appear on his skin, his eyes to glow red, and roots to sprout from the ground around him.

These roots grab Yamase’s ninja allies, but Kouichi quickly realizes the danger and reacts quickly by grabbing a sword and stabbing Miharu in the gut. As Kouichi then attempts to cast a sealing spell, the voice inside Miharu urges him to wish for something, and, and though Miharu doesn’t have a wish, his body uses a power to push Kouichi away. Kouichi is caught by Kumohira who had sensed what was going on, and Kumohira puts an end to all this by pulling the sword out of Miharu. As Miharu loses consciousness, he can hear the female voice asserting that he’ll definitely call her even though Miharu still believes that he doesn’t need anything. He wakes back up a little later in the school infirmary and is pissed off at Kouichi for what he did. When Miharu inquires about it, Kumohira explains that the hijutsu inside of him is the writing of Shinrabanshou (lit. all things in nature) which gives the ability to control all things. And even though Miharu doesn’t want it, they can’t take it out. As Kumohira and Kouichi explain that there’s one particular sect of ninjas who are after this, they sense enemies coming and prepare to fight.

Kouichi and Kumohira end up facing two ninjas apiece, however during the middle of the battle, Miharu gets captured by Yamase who brings him onto the school rooftop. Yamase roughs Miharu up a bit, but Kumohira eventually comes to save him and knocks Yamase out. In the aftermath, Miharu questions why Kouichi and Kumohira got hurt for him and wants them to stop involving themselves with him. Kumohira pays this no heed though and instead uses his own blood to mark Miharu’s forehead. He then gets on one knee and pledges himself to protect Miharu until Miharu becomes the ruler of Nabari. Miharu, however, starts to scoot away because he remembers that he still has to go buy katsuobushi, and he tells Kumohira that he only wants to regain his indifferent life. This doesn’t discourage Kumohira, and the following day at school, he’s once again trying to convince Miharu to join the nindou club.

ED Sequence

ED: 「HIKARI」 by ELISAWatch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2
I’ve never heard of VELTPUNCH, but apparently they’re a fairly popular indie rock band, and I rather liked their opening song here even though it was a little slow to get started (doesn’t quite hit its groove until the chorus). If you click on that link to their official site, you can find the full PV to this song (and thus the full song). ELISA, on the other hand, is an artist I’m familiar with from ef, but while she sings a decent ballad style song here, nothing about it really stood out for me.

You can tell from the summary, Nabari no Ou involves ninjas and the special power that the main character Miharu has inside of him. If your only point of reference for ninja anime is Naruto, then consider Nabari no Ou to have a much more mature feel to it than that. It has a very appealing mix of action and comedy to go along with its ninja plot, and I thought the action sequences in particular were animated quite well. The style of the backgrounds remind me a lot of Honey and Clover and/or KimiKiss, and while this is indeed a J.C.Staff production, it’s not connected with director Kasai Kenichi (the actual director is Sugishima Kunihisa).

As for the voice acting, after hearing Kugimiya Rie use her loli voice in role after role, it was odd hearing her try to do a deeper boy voice. I didn’t dislike it, but it does take some getting used to. I ended up liking Namikawa Daisuke the most out of the cast though, largely because he did a really good job during the scene where he pledges himself to Miharu (helped along by some good music there). In any case, I see this is a promising show, but I’m still debating whether to follow this or Special A, so I plan on watching an episode or two more of both.

This series is not bad especially when there’s again Kugimiya Rie and Hino Satoshi again though both are taking male role, in fact Kugimiya as Miharu is kinna strange but fits the role character quite well I wouldn’t know it’s her if I haven’t read the info. It’s a good replacement for Naruto.

OMG! I love this show so much! It is so good. And yeah, this isn’t yaoi but you’ll have to agree Miharu and Yoite are wierdly close. I can’t wait for when characters like Yoite and Raikou finally come in. Loved the opening! I’m so excited for more! Yay!

Aww, can’t you do both? I was looking forward to both these series. But, if there was no choice, then this seems more promising. Still, I’m kinda looking forward to Special A….ahhhhh!….can’t choose…..head exploding……BOOM! x.x

It is hard to say Miharu and Yoite are ‘best friends’, when they are not, ‘friends’, when they are evidently more than that, but ‘lovers’ is TOO MUCH. That is one of the charms of Nabari, the lack of a distinct label on Yoite/Miharu.

But it is just one aspect of Nabari no Ou that can be enjoyed. In this series, we have:

Wow, looks like a tough call. If I had to choose, I would follow this instead of Special A since this looks intruiging, and every other blog site and their nextdoor neighbour seems to be following S.A. Of course, the final choice is up to you. I’ll be glad whatever you choose!

first of all this nabari no ou is not yaoi for crying out all and second dont say its like naruto because the main character is ten times better than naruto (only fools who dont read manga say this stuff). before giving accusation read the first volume of the manga and then you can say whatever you want. if Pirate one of the people from timcanpi.org hear you say this stuff about nabari no ou he probably crucify you (im not joking he even said that)

Maybe it’s not yaoi but everyone who watched the first episode should have noticed obvious shounen-ai vibes, which even involved the main character. I’m not sure that’s something I’d particularly like to watch, but the action scenes looked damn good so maybe that will compensate for it.

It’s not yaoi. Read the first few chapters, it’s shounen action and comedy. The plot is excellent to my surprise so it’s worth the while to check out the series. Looks like this episode did well with the manga.

I have already seen the episode and I have to say that I’m impressed. I didn’t read the manga yet, but I certainly will.
I love ninjas (not the naruto type though)and I believe this will make a good story.

Now, for crying out loud, this is not yaoi for gods sake. It, eventualy can have some shounen-ai references as far as I know, but I doubt that it will even reach the kind of shounen-ai Loveless has.

Btw, lysianthus, loveless is not shounen, if you want to classify it like that, it will be shoujo/jousei (but this is a very simplistic classification) and definitely is shounen-ai.

well i think is nbot yaoi and shonen ai but i think that miharu and yoite develop a relaion far than friends personally i don’t this shonen ai undertone but the plot and the characters are interesting so i’ll watch it
hey dont even try to compare NABARI AND NARUTO naruto is for fool or mind retarded it’s too immature nabari even with this shonen ai problkem is much more interesting

Yes, getting some Loveless vibers here, and it’s definitely not a bad thing, because Loveless was pretty damn good, lots of action, excellent animation and visuals, and a good story. Don’t judge a book from its cover, and shouldn’t everyone else be more open minded? I mean, to watch/like/love anime, an artform made by an entire different culture than (y)ours, can’t you bear some BL like you bear (or like) shoujo-ai?
Double standards everywhere I turn, geesh.

Nabari no Ou is definitely not yaoi/boy-love. It may have some of those ?? moments between the main character (Miharu) and the main antagonist (Yoite) later on… but it’s not as huge of a deal as you homophobic people make it out to be (jeez, this is only the first episode). Miharu seems to use his “cuteness” to manipulate people, that’s all. I can’t believe people are disregarding this show already, because it MAY have BL-vibes. Wtf? Grow up.

Big /sigh at the people who think that just because the show may be BL (which it isn’t), it’s immediately worthless and they won’t bother watching it. Seriously, if you think that way, do the world a favour – find a fire, die in it. Thanks.

It looks like it’s going to be a great anime, and if the manga’s followed fairly closely I have high hopes for it. There are loads of interesting characters, the artwork is beautiful and the plot is enjoyable too. I’m amazed at how smallminded some of the comments here are. Hope the show is picked up.

That’s right, I wish all the homophobes would shut the FUCK up about the yaoi/BL thing – show that you have balls and is able to tolerate the mere sight and hints of BL which ISN’T EVEN THE MAIN POINT OF THE SERIES. No one cried like a pansy when there were girls sucking each other, no one screamed bloody murder when they saw titties and fanservice, and here comes an anime that isn’t even YAOI in the first place, and we have noobs running around the place. I know it’s the minority, but it’s this fucking loud minority that reminds me why there are ALWAYS double standards. =.=

@lysianthus: I completely agree with you! You said everything that was needed to be said!

I thought that it was a great episode, and I didn’t even feel the shounen-ai vibes, and believe me, I would recognize them because I love shounen-ai/yaoi.
Besides, even if they were present I really don’t see the problem. We have loads of anime, with fanservice toward boys, some of them that treat the woman body completely like an object, but I don’t hear complains anywhere. If you are not confortable with it, just don’t watch it!
Besides, when we have shoujo-ai is amazing but when we have shounen-ai (that isn’t even present, btw) we hear this kind of crap! Please, grow up!

I hate the character design in the manga or in the anime, they just look so like the design from a girly manga and like some of you mention THIS IS NOT YAOI but god it look so much like it thou. The character design is ugly as hell big head with long skeleton boney arms and legs

Just to say I have the manga and I hate it but it has nothing to do with BL, I hate it because the character design is ugly to me but the storyline just tend to feel very boring to me, the usually secret power inside a boy that doesn’t even know he have, so unoriginal and I am sure we seen this type of story from hundreds of anime just too common.

I don’t think it’s yaoi. Miharu cares for Yoite so much because Yoite reminds him of himself. That’s why he tries to help him (Yoite), but then again, I only read Manga till 7th Volume, I don’t if the manga goes yaoi after that.

-_-………….sweet jesus, so many posts with the word Yaoi in it. For god Sake! This damn Ninja Anime is not Yaoi! Fricking hell, its kinda annoying how so many people are saying Yaoi, Yaoi, Gay gay gay gay, without actually seeing that someone already said this is not Yaoi. Omni, I think you should note in your blogging that this is not a Yaoi anime. Cause it looks like, half of these damn people aren’t even looking through the comments….

lysanthius, I actually forgot about that (and good thing I did until now). I repeat: the Spring 2008 animes should;ve been titled “Coming out the Closet 2008″. I need some fanservice crap like Kanokon or To Love Ru to negate this kind of stuff LOL.

Miharu’s shota vibes were done on purpose.. Well, in the manga is was. He’d use whatever tactic he can to get out of situations.
As for the shounen-ai undertone.. beats me. I stopped reading three chapters in @@;
I always assumed the teacher was his brother or something *shrug* but the scenes in the ending song are.. @@

Well, shounen-ai vibes or not (jeez people, stop screaming ‘yaoi’ if you don’t even know the meaning of the word, it just makes you look very, very silly…), this show seems to be 10 times more interesting than Special A which looks like a boring Ouran rip-off.

Ehrm, it’s not yaoi and definitely not like j. romantica whereby sex just happens for the sake of it. The two guys share a very deep bond… (no doubt, whether it’s romantic or not, is still a questionable issue) and this bond plays a central part in moving the story.

Though, I don’t really see this as a shounen series. It’s kind of like a shoujo/shounen hybrid.

LOL THIS IS NOT YAOI. =A=
I find Miharu’s personality original…well, for a main character, that is. xD I love the art, although the thinness that was in the manga seems weird in the anime..and the cel-shading bothers me lol.

There’s something wrong with the animation?! No way, it’s done wonderfully! And the eyes…
Because of all the homosexual propaganda spreading around these days even a close relationship with someone of the same gender is being deemed suspicious. =_=
Although I really hope it does not turn out that way. I’ll like the show even if there’s no romance at all.

I’ve never seen so many rants about sometihng that doesn’t even exist on this show, =_= you totally ruined my day DX! You are missing the point here, if there are yaoi fans then FINE let them have their way, what the fuck is wrong with all of you, let everyone be… if the stupid homophobic complains say it’s a ‘Faggot show’ and you don’t like it then GO SEE CODE GEASS ( that btw totally SUCKS IMHO ) and then you’ll be fucking happy with all the fanservice and the big boob feast you’ll have! and if you see this because you really CARE THEN WELCOME TO THE FUCKING FANDOM! DX if fangirls turn this into Shonen-ai into their imagination I wouldn’t mind at all, because I’m really up to the character’s desing and their background stories and most of the time, the fangirls have their own communities where they can say whatever they like, homophobes just keep fucking with you until you get mad and want to kill them with a chainsaw D:! THEY USE THE WORD YAOI MORE THEN YAOI/BL FANS!

Hehehe… <3
I love this series! Its so intense.
There is BL and such it goes both ways.
You could totally indulge in it, or you could take it as a STRONG brotherly elationship. Up to you… ITS STILL AWESOME. :D

This is definetely a naruto rip off a huge NARUTO RIP OFF!!! This is like copy infringement taking Kishimoto’s ideas. Origional yah right origional story my ass!
If you really watched it you will see that they use ninja seals and ninja techniques in this too and another ninja world? Naruto is already a ninja world for crying out loud. Also the main character has something sealed within him well so does naruto and they use the same weapons kunai, giant shuriken and they all have forhead protectors. How can you say this is not a naruto rip off. I watched up to 7 episodes of nabari no ou and the more i watched the more i got pissed off because they use the same concept of Naruto the only difference is there is a different plot line and though someparts are funny it’s still not even a fraction impressive as naruto because Kishi’s ideas for naruto were origional the guy who made this crap just copied Kishimoto. I wouldn’t be suprised if the main characters friend becomes evil and they have a huge fight and split up like naruto and sauske. This load of bull crap is as much as a rip off from naruto as Pokemon is to Digimon and Yu-GI-Oh is to duel masters

Also a complete rip off from naruto Raimei also has her entire clan killed by her brother which now she wants to kill him for remind you guys of anything hint hint They totally copied that from naruto where sauske wants to kill his brother because he killed the entire clan.